Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ill THE GOSPELS "Whatever aspect (of the Kingdom of God) any man emphasized, it was still a national and collective idea. It involved the restoration of Israel as a nation to outward independence, security, and power, such as it had under the Davidic kings. It involved that social justice, prosperity, and happiness for which the Law and the Prophets called, and for which the common people always longed. It involved that religious purity and holiness of which the nation had always fallen short. And all this was to come in an ideal degree, such as God alone by direct intervention could bestow. When Jesus used the phrase 'the Kingdom of God,' it inevitably evoked that whole sphere of thought in the minds of His hearers. If He did not mean by it the substance of what they meant by it, it was a mistake to use the term. If He did not mean the consummation of the theocratic hope, but merely an internal blessedness for individuals with the hope of getting to Heaven, why did He use the words around which all the collective hopes clustered? In that case it was not only misleading, but a dangerous phrase. It unfettered the political hopes of the crowd: it drew down upon Him the suspicion of the government: it actually led to His death."—RAUSCHENBUSCH, Christianity and the Social Crisis, PP- 57, 58- SINCE the days of the Jewish Captivity, religion had become more intimate and introspective. Opportunity was lacking for political expression, and its absence drove the people in upon themselves, and the aspect of the individual soul and its God was developed. During the period of the Maccabees thenormal expression was regained, but even then the nation was not free of the suzerainty of Rome. But goodness, though individualised, was always treated as a preparation for the national restora...